Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Bernstein: Serenade
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Free Music Notes for Beethoven: Violin Concerto; Bernstein: Serenade
Free Music Review: Smashing a Stradivarius
Hit: 4 Stars
Extolling the virtues of Hillary Hahn--the artist, is an eye-rolling redundancy. Anyone who knows anything about this genre realizes Hahn's extraordinary, bone chilling, once-in-a-generation virtuosity. That this particular recording does not receive five stars is certainly no fault of Ms. Hahn's. Like squirting black ink on the Mona Lisa, or more fittingly--like smashing a Stradivarius against a brick wall, the criminally-incompetent audio engineer for this recording had destroyed any possibility that this CD would ever become an all-time chef-d'oeuvre. To be subtle--like a broken leg, this compact disc should be packaged complete with an eight channel digital audio mixer to permit at least a partial fix of the careless clumsy effort wrought by the audio engineer [sic!]. In fact, one wonders if the so-called audio engineer's ability to hear was similar to that of Ludwig Van Beethoven himself.Free Music Review: Great performance; adequate recording.
Hit: 4 Stars
I disagree with other reviewers who say that Ms. Hahn isn't miked close enough. I hate it when producers make it sound as though the soloist is ten feet away and the orchestra is in the next county. That isn't the problem here. The balance between soloist and orchestra here is perfect, in my opinion. The problem is the dry sound. Orchestra and soloist both sound stark, as though in a hall with no natural reverb at all. Nor is there much directionality to the stereo sound-- very austere. But all that is mere carping. The performance makes up for everything. Ms. Hahn plays cleanly, warmly, fervently. You can tell how much she loves the music. She makes us love it too. Nice pairing of the Beethoven and the Bernstein.Free Music Review: For God's Sake Let's Hear Hilary, Not the Orchestra!!!!!
Hit: 3 Stars
The first thing you ask me is do I like this CD. Yes, it's very pretty. How about the recording? Actually, I don't like the sound engineering. How about the performer Hilary Hahn? She's fantastic!I've been listening to Hilary for less than six months, since discovering her by chance. After about 30 seconds I came to the conclusion that this girl is as great a violinist as I've ever heard. Her intonation is perfect, her tone gorgeous, like velvet, better than Heifitz. I've heard them all. Hilary is from the Bel Canto school of violin playing.
Unfortunately, I can't give similar praise to the sound engineering. Several of your reviewers have complained about Miking, too close, too far. Well, I guess it comes down to whether or not you want to hear Hilary or the Orchestra. I bought this recording to hear Hilary and what I got was a solo recording of the orchestra with Hilary struggling to be heard in the background. I agree that the orchestral part of Beethoven's only violin concerto is beautiful but I've been listening to it for 61 years (I'm 72) and I think I've got it down. Conversely, I was trained in the violin and I want to hear the violinist and if you drown out the violinist with the orchestra how can I hear what Hilary is doing? Let me put it another way. Is this a violin concerto or an orchestra concerto?
By the way, the same comments can be made of Sony Classic's CD of Hilary Hahn playing Mendelssohn's violin concerto. Also, why do you mix Beethoven and Bernstein or Mendelssohn and Shostakovich. Too each his own but the styles of these composers are very different. More power to those who like both but why don't you put Bernstein and Shostakovich on the same CD together and Beethoven and Mendelssohn on another. That would double my pleasure and save me some money.
So the CD is worth every penny you pay for it just to hear Hilary Hahn in the background.
Free Music Review: Good but not great
Hit: 3 Stars
Hilary Hahn again shows her gorgeous sound and total mastery of technique in this recording. I do enjoy her performances of solo Bach and the Barber concerto, but I'm just not sold on this one. Her tempo in the first movement is too fast for me. In my opinion, this is one of the greatest works for the violin ever written, and it deserves to be cherished and explored...and I think Hahn rushes through it a bit. Technically impressive, as always, yes, but, for me, emotionally unfulfilling.Free Music Review: How to play this recording!!!!
Hit: 1 Stars
I was interested in the complaints about miking or mixing, but didn't think too much about it... UNTIL I got the CD a couple of months ago.
I was angry!!! Because, like Mr.Doucet, I could hardly hear Hilary. I have since figured out why.
One reason fixable and one reason not.
The non fixable first. As we age many or most of us lose some of the ability to hear higher notes. I'm 67.
The fixable one. What I could hear I loved, so I kept playing with it. Finally I tried leaving the treble volume normal, but reducing the bass a lot. SUCCESS!!! There was Hilary, quite hearable. And the big strong Beethoven bass and middle chords were still big and strong, but didn't bury her. Now I love this recording.
I also have copies of her (also Sony) Mendelssohn and Brahams concertos which were (for me) improved by this bass reduction.
I hope this helps someone.